Plantagenet

Plantagenet Kings and Queens

The House of Plantagenet had its origins in a cadet branch of the original counts of Anjou, the dynasty established by Fulk I of Anjou at the beginning of the tenth century. The Plantagenet dynasty ruled England for over three hundred years, from 1154 -1485. They were a remarkable family, providing England with fourteen of its kings.

The surname Plantagenet, which was to become one of the most famous in England, seems to have derived from a nickname adopted by Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, the father of Henry II and refers to his habit of wearing a sprig of broom or planta genista in his helmet.

The dynasty produced such varied characters as the energetic Henry II, arguably one of England's greatest monarchs and his legendary son, Richard the Lionheart, who led the Third Crusade against Saladin into the Holy Land. The highly aesthetic Henry III and his son, the indomitable Edward I, who conquered Wales and became known as the Hammer of the Scots for his campaigns into that country, where he fought William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, the most famous of Scotland's sons, and Henry V, the conqueror of France, who bequeathed the diadems of both countries to his pious and ineffectual son, Henry VI.

The Plantagenets, described by Bacon as "a race much dipped in their own blood" finally destroyed themselves in the bloody dynastic struggle we know of as the Wars of the Roses. The later Plantagenets became divided into the Houses of Lancaster and York which descended through different sons of King Edward III. The Yorkist king Richard III was the last of his house, when he was killed in battle on Bosworth Field, to be displaced by the Tudors, it was the end of an era. The male line of the Plantagenets became extinct with the execution in 1499 of Edward, Earl of Warwick, the son of George, Duke of Clarence, in the reign of Henry VII, the first Tudor.

Monarch

Born and Reign

Henry II

B. 1133. Son of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou & Matilda of Normandy R. 1154-89

Henry II

B. 1157 Son of Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine. R. 1189-99

King John

B. 1167 Son of Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitainer. R. 1199-1216

Henry II

B. 1207 Son of King John & Isabella of Angouleme R. 1216-72

Henry II

B. 1239 Son of Henry III &Eleanor of Provencer. 1272-1307

Edward II

B. 1284 Son of Edward I & Eleanor of Castille R. 1307-27

Edward III

B 1312 Son of Edward II & Isabella of Francer. 1327-77

Rickhard II

B. 1367 Son of Edward, the Black Prince & Joan of Kent R. 1377-99

Henry IV

B. 1366 Son of John of Gaunt & Blanche of Lancaster R. 1399-1413

Henry V

B. 1387 son of-Henry IV & Mary de Bohun R. 1413-22

Henry VI

B. 1421 Son of Henry V & Catherine of Valois R. 1422- 61 & 1470-71

Edward IV

B. 1442 Son of Richard Duke of York & Cecily Neville R. 1461 -70 & 1471-83

Edward V

B. 1470 Son of Edward IV & Elizabeth Woodville R. 1483

Rickhard III

B. 1452 Son of Richard Duke of York & Cecily Neville R. 1483-85 Anne Neville

Additional Information on the era